Thursday, December 11, 2014

NB of the Week

-NEVER SPOIL WHEN YOU'RE HUNGRY-

Thor #3

Written by Jason Aaron

Drawn by Russell Dauterman

When a new, female Thor was announced, people kinda lost their collective minds. "Thor is his name, not a title passed on!", "This is just PR crap to get female readers!", The real Thor will be back by Avengers 2 so who cares?" Three issues in, are any of those complaints right? Actually, maybe. But that doesn't take away from the story that Aaron is telling.

Last issue ended with Female Thor separated from her hammer and confronted by frost giants. This issue was pure, Thor badassery.

As Malekith begins to try and enter the sealed room containing Dario Agger (CEO of Roxxon and a minotaur), the skull of Laufey (ex frost giant king, not dead) and Mjolnir (hammer of hammers), Thor is attacked by the frost giants. Easy at first, they freeze her and one eats her. Game over. They think. Soon enough, she busts her way out of the frost giant and then proceeds to beat the holy Hel out of the others before she changes back to her mortal form (being separated from the hammer will do that). This is actually where I got antsy. As she tries to pry her way into that sealed room, she slowly begins to change back, revealing small glimpses of her true form. A mystery I was anxiously turning the page to see. Alas, she reaches it before we see her form, leaving that for another time. Being reunited with Mjolnir, she doesn't play to Malekith's hand and destroys Laufey's skull, leaving Malekith speechless, only able to spurt out threats of the war she has just started with such an act. The issue ends with a word balloon coming in saying that she already has a war on her hands, revealing original Thor. And he wants his hammer back.

This is one of those "cart before the horse" moments where everybody hating this concept before reading it should finally shut up. This is Thor. I have no idea who she is, how she became worthy or why she is doing what she's doing and I don't care. Anybody who has enjoyed Thor over the years should be smart enough to recognize all the familiar traits in this female version: rough, uncaring of others feelings, brash and full of fight. I can already picture her drinking mead in the halls of Asgard, telling spoils of how she killed giants. And next issue is Thor vs Thor! I'm not sure how I'll make it through that issue in one sitting.